Recipe: Carlota Negra Mexican Pastry

The best description of this Mexican pastry is "flaky fudge". It's a small pastry that packs a powerful chocolate punch. A fragile, crisp chocolate pastry is layered with semi-sweet chocolate cream, and topped with more chocolate cream. I don't know the history of the recipe, but it seems to be related to the layered Napoleans of France.

It is served in small squares with strong black coffee at special occasions and holiday dinners. It shows up on the menus of fancy restaurants, and can sometimes be found in bakeries.

Makes 16 squares

PASTRY:

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder (the darker and richer the better)
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup cold butter (sweet, unsalted, VERY COLD)
1/3 cup sour cream (also very COLD)

1.Sift the flour, cocoa and salt together into a bowl.

2.Cut the butter into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender or two knives until the ingredients resemble coarse sand. (Don't try a shortcut with melted butter, because it turns to a greasy mess.)

3.Add the sour cream and quickly knead the dough into a ball with as little handling as possible. It will be very soft. Divide into four equal parts and refrigerate it for four hours or more. It has to be very cold. You can freeze it for several days

NOTE: A food processor makes this part very easy, but don't over-process the dough.

Preheat oven to 400 F

1.One at a time, remove each chunk of dough and roll each piece on a lightly floured piece of waxed paper, into a 10x10 inch square as quickly as possible. Trim to size. Don't try to re-use the trimmings - just bake them later and eat them as the cook's bonus.

2.Carefully transfer the dough to a buttered baking sheet, stab it all over with a fork and bake for 10 minutes. Carefully remove it to a wire rack to cool. Repeat this with the other three pieces, letting the baking sheet cool between pastries. (Optional step - you can brush the dough with egg white before you bake it to make the pastry less likely to absorb moisture from the filling)

FILLING:

16 ounces semi-sweet chocolate (chips or squares). You can replace an ounce or two with bitter chocolate if you like for a richer flavor.
1/4 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup unsalted sweet butter
5 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla (or dark rum, Triple Sec, Kahlua, Amaretto, or whatever strong-flavored booze you like. Even Peppermint Schnapps works.)

1.Place chocolate, cream and butter in saucepan over low heat and stir until everything is melted.

2.Beat the egg yolks with an electric mixer until they are thick.

3.Blend about 1/4 cup of the chocolate mixture into the egg yolks, then blend that mixture into the remaining chocolate mixture. This works some sort of magic to keep the yolks from lumping.

4.Stir in the vanilla, let cool to room temperature.

ASSEMBLY:

1.Place one pastry square on the serving plate and spread with about 1/4 of the filling. Continue layering, ending with the best-looking square and the final layer of chocolate.

2.OPTIONAL: Make a design on top. For a powdered sugar lace pattern, hold a paper doily just above the topping so it doesn't stick and lightly sift a bit of powdered sugar through . Other toppings - depends on your flavoring. Chocolate curls, candied orange slices, crushed peppermints, whatever you want.

3.Cut carefully into 16 squares and serve. If served promptly, it is very flaky. If allowed to sit a few hours, it is more "fudge" textured.